As welding technology and applications have advanced so have the demands on power supply sources. These increased demands may require power supplies to respond to rapid changes in conditions of a welding operation almost instantaneously. These changes, for example, can include adjusting the welding current supplied to a wire feeder. Thus, there is an increased need for a high-speed communication link between a welding power supply source and a wire feeder. Such a high-speed communication link can transmit large amounts of data in the form of digital signals. For compactness in size, and instead of adding a separate cable, it would be desirable to have the high-speed communication link set up directly over welding cables that connect a power supply to a wire feeder. The present disclosure discusses such an approach.